Aesop's Fables (2 page)

The present text of Aesop’s Fables derives from V.S. Vernon Jones’s edition published by W. Heinemann in 1912. Spelling and punctuation have been Americanized, printer’s errors corrected, and capitalization standardized throughout.

Published in 2003 by Barnes & Noble Classics with new Introduction, Notes, Biography, Chronology, Map, Inspired By, Comments & Questions, and For Further Readingl

Introduction, Notes, and For Further Reading

Note on Aesop, The World of Aesop and His Fables,

Inspired by
Aesop’s
Fables, and Comments & Questions

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Aesop’s Fables

ISBN-13: 978-1-59308-062-4

eISBN : 97-8-141-14317-1

ISBN-10: 1-59308-062-X

LC Control Number 2003108022

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Michael J. Fine, President and Publisher

Printed in the United States of America

9 10 8

AESOP

Aesop may not be a historical figure but rather a name that refers to a group of ancient storytellers. And if a man named Aesop did exist, it is unlikely that he committed any of his immortal fables to paper. After his presumed date of death several centuries passed before the first reliably known written collection of the stories appeared. What, then, is known of this elusive author, of whose true identity, like Homer’s, we have but a hazy impression?

Tradition says that around 620 B.C., Aesop was born a slave in one of the ancient city-states in Asia Minor, on the Greek island of Samos, or in Ethiopia or another locale. A man named Xanthus owned him first, and then ladmon; because of Aesop’s marvelous wit and capacious intellect, ladmon gave him his freedom. According to Plutarch, Aesop served as a shrewd and capable emissary to the wealthy Croesus, king of Lydia, who employed the fabulist in his court, where he dined with philosophers and from which he traveled on ambassadorial missions. The brilliant storyteller reportedly journeyed throughout Greece, doing business for Croesus and delighting the citizens of many cities with his fables.

As the fables that bear his name suggest, Aesop must have been a clever and wisely observant man, but according to one account of his death, his keen sense of human behavior was his undoing. Croesus had entrusted Aesop with a fortune in gold and sent him as an emissary to Delphi, with instructions to spread the sum throughout the land. But the avarice of the citizens disgusted Aesop, and he declined to hand out the money. Sadly, his mistrust of the people was well founded, for they executed Aesop, some say by hurling him from a cliff-top.

The death of Aesop the man had little impact on the life of his works, and collections of “Aesop’s fables” grew and flourished through the ages, in both written and oral form. They were among the first printed works in the vernacular European languages, and writers and thinkers throughout history have perpetuated them to such an extent that they are embraced as among the essential truths about human beings and their ways.

THE WORLD OF AESOP AND HIS FABLES

c. 2000 B.C	In ancient Mesopotamia proverbs and fables featuring animals are recorded on clay tablets. Probably based on older material, now lost, such stories were most likely invented independently in more than one place; prehistoric travelers car ried them back and forth across the world.
c. 620	Aesop was born a slave or possibly captured into slavery at an early age; his birthplace might have been Thrace, Phrygia, Samos, Athens, Sardis, or Ethiopia. As a young man he was taken by a slave trader to what is now Turkey. When no one would buy him, he was taken to the island of Samos, where a man said to be a philosopher called Xanthus purchased him as a servant for his wife. Later he was owned by Iadmon, a Samian, who gave Aesop his freedom.
Seventh-sixth centuries	The Seven Sages of Greece—Solon of Athens, Chilon of Sparta, Thales of Miletus, Bias of Pri ene, Cleobulus of Lindos, Pittacus of Mitylene, and Periander of Corinth—are revered as the source of the highest practical wisdom. According to Plutarch, Aesop is a guest at one of the sages’ banquets.
c. 560	Aesop’s cunning, wisdom, and oratory had freed
him from slavery, but this year they will cost him his life. The citizens of Delphi, offended by perceived insults to their aristocracy and the god Apollo, plant a golden cup in his baggage, then accuse him of having stolen it; they execute Aesop by throwing him off a cliff.
425	In his History of the Greco-Persian wars, the Greek historian Herodotus writes about Aesop.
422	In his comedy Wasps, Aristophanes notes that, at banquets in ancient Athens, a common entertainment was the telling of anecdotes and comic stories in the style of Aesop.
360	Plato records in his dialog Phaedo that Socrates, in prison awaiting execution, had diverted himself by writing some of Aesop’s fables in verse.
c. 300	In Athens, Demetrius Phalareus may compile the first collection of fables attributed to Aesop, but it will not survive after about 900 A.D. In India, the first of the didactic Jataka tales are written and will continue to be recorded until about 400 A.D.; many are based in ancient folklore and have close parallels in Aesop. Part of the canon of sacred Buddhist literature, the collection—some 550 anecdotes and fables—depicts early incarnations of the Buddha.
c. 100	In India, a Sanskrit collection of tales is collected that will form the basis for the Panchatantra (see third and fourth centuries A.D.).
First century	The Roman poet Horace records, in his Satires, one of the most famous of Aesop’s fables, “The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse” (no. 141).
c. 15 B.C.	Phaedrus is born as a slave in Thrace; at a young age he moves to Italy, where he gains his freedom. He will live until 50 A.D.
First century A.D.	In Rome, Phaedrus records the oldest surviving collection of Aesopic fables in Latin iambic verse; the five books of his collection contain
some 94 fables. Later editors will rely heavily on Phaedrus as a source for their “Aesop’s fables.”
Second century	Babrius, probably a Hellenized Roman, assembles the oldest extant collection of Aesopic fables in Greek. It includes more than 200 fables, 143 of which are still extant in verse form; 57 others have survived paraphrased in prose. Babrius’s Aesopic fables will also serve as a source for later editors.
Third-fourth centuries	In India, the Panchatantra is compiled; many of these 87 animal fables were ancient oral folktales.
400	Flavius Avianus rewrites in Latin verse 42 of the Greek fables from the Babrius collection. Although these stories are not as succinct as the best fables, the collection will be influential in medieval Europe and often used in schools.
c. 1000	The great collection of Arabic short fiction The 1001 Nights, also known as The Arabian Nights Entertainment, is compiled; based on Indian, Persian, and Arabic folklore, many of the individual stories are undoubtedly even older. In addition to romantic tales of fantasy and magic, The 1001 Nights also contains a number of Aesop-like animal fables.
c. 1160-1190	Marie de France, the greatest woman author of the Middle Ages, composes 103 original fables in French verse; called ysopets, they are in the Aesopic tradition.
c. 1300	The Byzantine scholar Planudes Maximus compiles a well-regarded collection of Aesop’s fables and writes the earliest known biography of Aesop. His most likely fictional descriptions of Aesop portray him as monstrously deformed. However, ancient texts that refer to Aesop make no mention of any such deformity.
1330	The popularity of fables attributed to Aesop leads to new literary creations in the same tra
dition. This year, an anonymous English scribe writes Gesta Romanorum (Deeds of the Romans) ; among the 283 recorded “deeds” are a dozen animal fables similar to those of Aesop.
c. 1450	Movable-type printing is developed, greatly facilitating the publication of fable collections in vernacular languages throughout Europe.
1461	The first book printed in German is a collection of fables attributed to Aesop and Flavius Avianus ; compiled by Ulrich Boner, it is titled Der Edelstein (The Precious Stone).
c. 1476	Heinrich Steinhöwel publishes Esopus , a collection of fables in Latin and German; translated into French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and Czech, it will become an international best-seller.
1484	William Caxton publishes an English translation of the French version of Steinhöwel’s Esopus; it is among the first books published in English.
1668—1694	Jean de La Fontaine publishes about 240 poems in the Aesopic tradition; many readers today know Aesopic fables primarily through La Fontaine’s rendition.

INTRODUCTION

“Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched!” “He is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” “She has a sour-grapes attitude.” “They are killing the goose that laid the golden eggs.” “He demands the lion’s share.” “Don’t be like the boy who called ‘wolf!’ ” These expressions are so much a part of our everyday language and culture that they seem to have been with us forever, and that is almost the case, for the fables that produced these proverbial sayings are indeed even older than (to name but three) the modern English, French, and German languages where today they are so much at home. The fables behind these sayings are those of arguably the most famous storyteller of all time, the legendary Aesop. Who was the man who created these timeless literary gems?

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